MA / technical advice for kolkie

I'm very proud of kolkie - two years ago she was snowploughing slowly on blue runs, and now she's turning into a competent skier and looking at starting easy offpiste (and that's despite half-tearing her ACL last December!).

That said, what should she work on, based on this video? Advice appreciated:)

Snowboard instructor, not ski instructor, so with that mahoosive caveat in place:

The grip in all the turns is only coming from the tails of the skis and late in the turn. Needs to work on using the full length of the ski and getting grip earlier in the turn (the two go together to some extent).

Apart from popping-up at the edge change, her movements are quite static, again, smoothing things out will help with the above.

Looks balanced and tidy though.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Nice skiing!

Looks to me like the weight is not fully forward, particularly at the end/start of the turn. And much more effort than is required, probably resulting in tired thighs. I would concentrate on 2 things:
1. Get the hips forward at the end of the turn, before initiating the start of the next turn
2. Patience - the transition should be exactly that. It looks like she is in a rush to get the downhill ski fully pressured, which will give a feeling of control, so is natural and common when starting out. Telling herself to be patient at the start of the turn should smooth this out.

@horizon, when people start skiing off piste it can be a challenge because it will highlight any technique issues. Looking at kolkie she has made good progress for a relatively new skier.

She is a little back on her skis which isn’t the end of the world if you’re skiing powder, however she also seems to have “fear of the fall line” which will be more of a problem. By this I mean she has a tendency to rush the turn to avoid facing downhill. When she is facing directly down hill she very quickly pushes the tails out to get the skis round. When skiing off piste in deep or lumpy snow doing this isn’t so easy to do and may cause a fall.

Correcting this tail swinging/twitching will take a bit of time and effort. A couple of things you might get her to try are, counting, out loud at first, right through the turn, the idea is to slow things down letting the skis do the work. Also encourage more flowing turns so the they quickly merge into one another but without going around too far and ending up across the slope. It’s best to practice this on the piste on relatively flat slopes to get it nailed. Just a last thought, maybe try some shorter poles they might help get her forward a bit, plus there’s a slight tendency for her hands to swing forward with the turn.

When trying to correct something like this an hours focused private lesson with a good instructor can really pay off and I would strongly advise it.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Thanks all! Very good info, knowing her she'll work diligently on it, both when she skis with me and when she gets a private lesson (which she will).

Always so instructive and fascinating to see these 'real world' examples - thanks for posting.

My very amateur opinion is that her hips stay too far back and are too static which slows down her ability to pivot the skis as she turns. This leads to her spending too long in the fall line, picking up too much speed and so then feeling the need to push the skis too hard into the snow to slow down, causing the slipped turns that we see.

I suggest the braquage (sp) drill for both hip movement and foot & thigh pivot steering

She's doing really well and I definitely think you're right to be proud of her. It all looks a little bit messy to me but I think she could be just a gnats width away from becoming a really nice skier. I think it might take more than one private lesson to make the breakthrough but she's definitely getting there and I suspect she's at the stage where the professional instructors can see the promise and would love to spend some time with her ironing out the last few things that are holding her back.

I'm not going to give any specific advice. I think it's time to let the professionals do their magic.

Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Tue 5-12-17 13:14; edited 1 time in total

After all it is free

After all it is free

@horizon, lots of good points raised above, I think the first two things I'd get her to work on would be not pushing out the tails and not "rushing" the turns and getting more centred on her skis. I'd be doing these on REALLY easy, green slopes, nice and smooth and not too steep.

You can see on this still that her inside ski tip is in the air and weight back.

2 drills I'd suggest, I'd avoid Braquage IMHO as it encourages pivoting and rotating the skis around quickly which is the opposite of what she needs to work on IMHO

1. for patience in the turn, think of "finishing" the turn and making nice S shapes in the snow rather than the Z shapes she is making currently. Try some J turns on a nice smooth green. Good visualisation & explanation in this video plus the J turns

2. For balance try lifting *JUST* the tail of the inside ski after a turn, when in the traverse and keep the tip pressed on the snow. I suspect she won't be able to do this at first. Once she can do this try and introduce the inner ski lift near the end of the turn, then introduce it earlier and earlier in the turn. Ensure JUST the tail is lifted and tip is on the snow. Look at the drill 3min 20secs into this video

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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.

adding in after watching in slo mo, the very first turn on the video is less rushed than the one that follows it. Hopefully she/you can see the difference? Played back at 0.25 speed on youtube

She also has her weight on the inner ski, the lifting the tail drill I suggested above will also help with that

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@kitenski, I've used Braquage for being centered over the skis more than for anything else... I agree that it's not really a technique to be used in day-to-day skiing

I used to ski like kolkie - hands forward, head forward but actually still in the back seat cos of the hips/bum... Try Braquage with that stance and it is impossible, so it taught me to get my hips forward in a stacked stance as only in that position can the feet pivot quickly.

Also agree about trying drills on less steep slopes - that looks like a red and is perhaps adding to her speed-control difficulties

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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@horizon, wow that’s impressive progress! Surely all that remains is some fat rockered skis and a foot of powder 😉

And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.

And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.

@red 27, yup fair points, but I personally think other drills would be more effective at this stage, no problems to try them all out and see what she gets on with, certain people hate certain drills that others love!

@BobinCH, in all seriousness she'll blow an ACL IMHO at some point sitting back like that in powder on fat skis.....

So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much

So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much

I'm no instructor but I'll give a piece of advice that helped me with my skiing and I'm do stantky reminding myself when it gets sketchy.
pull my feet back under my body/hips. it made more sense to me than get forward